PS 2159 
.K68 
Copy 1 



THB OBSEHUIES OF ORPHEUS 



t ^t,/^/<^*'k/A^ 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS 



READ BEFORE THE 



FORTIETH ANNUAL eONVENTiON 



% 



m m$f^ tf%ilm f raterait| 



Washington, January Fifth 
1887, 



.^ 



Andrew Oemper. 



^ 



CINCINNATI: 
Cohen 4 Co., Printers, 




^ ' / 






Copyright 1887, 

ANDREW C. KEMPER. 

All rights reserved. 



The Obseouies oe Okpheus. 



The delight of the Gods was young Hellas to see 
On the breast, in the arms of the ^gean Sea, 
Where their fostering diligence lovingly spread 
Those munificent gifts that prosperity bred. 
Ere her warm heart was chilled by historical lore 
Or her fancy was curbed by the myths that it bore, 
When her garlanded grottoes supplied them a home 
And her valleys were gardens through which they might roam, 
When her fountains were clear as the light from the sun 
Where their daughters might bathe with their tresses undone, 
And the rills in her mountains from silver cascades 
Threw a sanctity over her evergreen glades. 
And each landscape reflected in river or stream 
Was the dwelling of deities held in esteem 
By a people as brave, as impassioned and free 
As e'er conquered the land, or were masters at sea, 
When her zephyrs were laden with perfume so sweet 
That it scented her groves to their inmost retreat 
Where the voice of their oracles, faithfully heard, 
Was allotting to each the success he preferred, 
When the future was known from the flight of a bird, 
And the brutes by omnipotent power were stirred. 
When the fairest of priestesses served at her shrines 
With a virginal purity sweet as her wines 
While adorning the altars with flowers and fruits 
Keeping time in their hymns to melifluous lutes, 
When the frame, and its creatures, were cordially bound 
In a kinship that nature rejoiced they had found, 
'Twas a dream before waking to eminent deeds 
That were augured by Hellas's mythical creeds. 



4 THK OBSEQUIES OV ORPHEUS. 

Where Pelion frowned upon a restless sea 
And Ossa smiled across die western lea, 
Where wild Peneus rolled her silver tide 
While on her breast the oily streamlets glide, 
Beside the Vale of Tempe's verdant plain 
Where Pindus chose to crown his famous chain 
Olympus reared on high his spacious head 
As if he knew and felt his Maker's tread. 
About his zone, and spreading o'er his knees. 
Were oaks, and pines, and stalwart chestnut trees 
To hide o'erhanging rocks with fissures wide 
That marked the limits where the Gods reside, 
While on his neck eternal snowdrifts rest 
As kings wear spodess ermine round their breast. 
Above these guards that human steps defy 
His head seemed floating in the clear blue sky. 
'Twas here great Zeus was wont to hold his court 
As well immortal Homer's lines report. 

One morning when Aurora's crimson blush 
Bespoke the crimes of night she fain would hush, 
Ere she with rosy fingers took away 
The bars that shut the golden gates of day. 
Or brushed aside the dew pearls from her eye. 
Or stirred the welkin with her gentle sigh, 
Puissant Zeus, his sceptre in his hand. 
Assumed his throne and curtly gave command 
To Hermes that he call his trusty hosts 
To come before him from their various posts 

The troubled stars shot flaming through the sky, 
The JEgean waves made helpless sailors cry. 
The gentle rivers caught the moaning moods 
Of winds that murmured through the sacred woods, 
The birds flew vaguely to the unknown west, 
The brutes ran homeless exiles seeking rest. 
Terrific tumults rolling under ground 
Gave back from heaven's concave awful sound, 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

Each creature conscious of some present ill, 
Some interference with Eternal Will, 
Seemed disconcerted and by tear perplexed 
With all its best affections rudely vexed. 

Apollo, first, the radiant god of day. 

More rich in gifts than any of the rest, 
Appeared, in glory, ready to obey 

The wishes of his lord with lively zest. 
Then all the powers stood before the throne 

As quick as light leaps through the ether's space, 
And to the eyes of men Olympus shone 

A piercing splendor that they could not face. 
Apollo's lyre the waiting quiet broke 

And left its echoes wandering through the spheres, 
And Zeus in rhythmic voice majestic spoke 

As only speaker can who has no peers. 

"Ye Forces that attend Contriving Will 
Since Will designed and out of chaos drew 
This firmament with all its life, sustained 
By Self-Exisent Life, and with it you 
Whose pliant service most adorns its frame 
By working silently throughout the spheres 
That harmony of purpose which reveals 
His presence, active in the smallest things. 
And His one thought of good, ye know that all 
Are free whose service bears the highest worth, 
And what constraint of sweet persuasion lures, 
By my command, from evil ways to good. 
Those hapless ones who sadly choose the wrong. 
And how tiieir wayward folly grows rank grief. 
Your sorrow shall with pity blend to hear 
What fair Mnemosyne will now rehearse." 

Again A])ollo's lyre soft echoes woke 
Responsive to its Maker's native stroke. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 



They chased themselves in phantom melody 
Along the crests of Pindus to the sea, 
And when they sank to silence in the west 
The goddess answered the divine behest. 



' ' O, God, thy pure beneficence 
Enslaves our being to its sense, 
While man of all thy care the end 
Cannot its beauty comprehend. 
No seraph's thought can ever fly, 
No subtile alchemy can pry 
To realms thy goodness does not know. 
If not to bless, to soften woe. 
This noble race of Hellenese 
Have rarely failed thy hope to please, 
Their greater deeds, thy richer grace, 
Thy poorer gifts, the new displace, 
Until in all that man achieves 
They wore the crown of laurel leaves. 
Then, not from any garnered store 
Of gifts thy hand selected more, 
But from thy wise and loving thought 
A new incentive Force was wrought. 
As if that hand was pleased to see 
How blest its workmanship could be. 
An Energy that hearts incline 
As kindred particles combine, 
To soothe wherever sorrow mars 
And lead the way beyond the stars. 
Hymettus had no sweeter bees 
Than thy last gift to Hellenese 
The poet Orpheus, first and best, 
Immortal myth of all the rest 

He sang to shepherds 'neath the dome 
Whose spangles veil the Maker's home. 
His minstrelsy gave rare delight 
Where rustic swains pursued the right. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

He taught the poor those deathless strains 

The angels link in their refrains. 

He gave the wise such rha])sodies 

As filled the land with melodies, 

And when their minds could hold no more 

Invented letters for the score. 

Where'er in temple, wood, or fane 

The voice of men God's heart would gain 

His sacred hymns like incense rise 

In clouds of concord to the skies. 

When'er a child was taught to pray 

It lisped the cadence of his lay. 

Where spoken words dare not intrude 

Upon the heart's deep solitude 

His lines its message bore on high 

As sparks to their own fountain fly. 

While thus he sang from place to place 

His art acc[uired a matchless grace, 

And as he trod his lonely way 

Strange mysteries around him play 

To sanctify his steps and guess 

What truths his numbers might not dress. 

From each low hamlet's simple crowd 

His comic verse drew laughter loud, 

Or tears pronounced their sympathies 

For victims of life's tragedies. 

Where any village heard his song 

It drew the neighbors to its throng 

And thus those Festivals arose 

With whose renown no age will close, 

Where Gods were patrons of the games 

That listed theirs with human names 

Since at Olympia's pure shrine 

Their fame was joined by thee with thine. 

The husbandmen his spirit caught 

Until their fields told heaven's own thought. 

Their orchards were an epic ode 

Each fruitful tree an episode. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

Domestic beasts by kindness swayed 
In sleek contentment fondly strayed, 
Or patiently endured the yoke 
With knowing eyes that fairly spoke. 
The sickle sang a sweet refrain 
Where cultured soil enriched the grain, 
And rocks along the inland shores 
Resounded strokes in search for ores. 
The clanging axe among the trees 
Bespoke stout timber for the seas. 
This enterprise such commerce bred 
That all the nation's life was fed. 
The daring Argo led by him 
Beyond horizon's distant brim 
For many wrongs obtained surcease 
And proudly gained the Golden Fleece. 
Of all those Argonauts achieved 
No feat thy brother Pluto grieved 
More than the witching song he sung 
That hushed the Siren's wicked tongue. 

And yet with honors such as these 
Returning to the Hellenese 
He who was leader of his time 
In thoughts that through the ages climb 
Came, strangely, by neglected ways, 
Denied his proper poet's bays. 
To dwell in Melancholy's cave 
In life, or death, his only grave. 

While Dionysian rites were pure 
His hymns were their investiture 
Until licentious orgies came 
To render scandalous their name 
And culture priestesses to hate 
The innocence they violate. 
These phrensied women heard the knel 
The poet sang them from his cell. 
With horrid oaths and fiendish spite 
They took him from his cave at night 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

To rend his body widi dieir teeth 
And strew its fragments o'er the heath. 
The moaning waves of Hebrus bore 
His sacred head to ocean's shore. 
Serenp Poseidon paused to weep 
When it came singing on the deep. 
His curse the sea perpetuates, 
The head, he left at Lesbos, waits." 

Apollo's lyre hung mute beneath his eye, 
Except its whisper of the common sigh 
Of grief that wafted through the heedful spheres, 
As silence merged that precious voice in tears. 

"Thanks! dear Mnemosyne, for this sad due 
That wrings thy heart to tell. We may not spare 
Thy needful record though it give us pain " 

Thus Zeus fulfilled his godlike courtesy 
And then addressed his holy company. 

" My soul for Hellas weeps as your hearts ache. 
The good the Gods provide for men is spurned. 
The majesty and mystery of love 
In infinite display is rudely mocked 
By reason fitly formed the ornament 
And chief design of all wherein we serve. 
Such evils live but for a day. We wait 
Upon Eternal Life. Haste then ye Gods 
To fetch the mangled shreds of that poor clay 
Where dwelt our poet's spirit now let free 
To immortality, and on this high 
And holy mountain where Apollo's eye 
Forever rests, attend his sepulture 
With such a ritual of obsequies 
As time shall ne'er forget. My daughters nine 
Obey this trust, whom Hermes will attend, 
Apollo guard, while each of you consents." 



lO THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

Lo ! m Apollo's hand at once appeared 
The lyre he gave to Orpheus, now endeared 
By faculties enlarged on other strings. 
One sweeping stroke and all sweet sounds took wjngs 
To blend in measures to awake the dead 
From musty cerements, or collect each shred 
Long lost, and like the rapture of a vision 
Transport their spirit forms to fields elysian 
Ere his resurgent strains had died awa)- 
The form of Orpheus on Olympus lay, 
And that celestial choir about its bier 
Intoned such chorals of triumphant cheer 
As thrilled beyond Cecilia's utmost bars 
And hushed the music of the morning stars. 



Now dextrous Hermes, winged at feet and head, 
To noble courtesy divinely bred, 
Each Muse presented near the shrouded bier 
To sing her requiem forever dear 
To their fond mother sweet Mnemosyne. 
The silver toned was first. Calliope. 



" I sing the holy common heart 
The soul and end of real art. 
The poet tunes its finest strings 
To joy perennial when he sings, 
Or heals its sorrow laden sigh 
With comfort villains cannot try. 
When human thought is in its youth 
He learns from it the crystal truth 
And sets it in a form so rare 
No age its lustre can impair. 
When knowledge tangled in a maze 
Conceals the truth from reason's gaze 
He sees by its prophetic lore 
The beacon on the other shore. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. II 

He gives his life in humble tears 

To share its hopes, possess its fears. 
Nor gold, nor crowns its passion prove 
It gives itself, immortal love." 

A plaintive miserere's tender staves 
With all Athene's flutes in flowing waves 
Expressed the longing in each heaven born breast 
To share a brotherhood by all confessed. 

A holy quiet fell upon the throng 
Until brisk Hermes ushered Clio's song. 

"This world is but by glimpses seen 
Without a blending light between. 
Each hero tells his narrative 
With all the color he can give 
Each day reveals some newer thought 
To set the former time at naught. 
Each faction strives to gain the rule 
And use the other for its tool. 
And yet there is an eye that sees 
One growing plan in all of these. 
The lives of men must ever be 
Like drops of water in the sea, 
Now in the depths, now dashed on high, 
Now vapor floating to the sky. 
Yet each has its own destiny 
Its duty and its agony. 

Beneath the restless sea of time 

There runs a golden cord sublime 
That gets a life from cloud veiled skies 
To tell the world where freedom lies. 

Its whispers charm the poet's ears 

He sings the harmony he hears." 

Now Ares marshaled the celestial host, 
While Hestia bore the banner, heaven's boast. 



12 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

And grim Hephaestus made the world resound 
With cymbals, bells, and every clanging sound. 
With ringing shouts, and peals of clapping hands. 
With fear, and love, and strife in all the bands. 
Nine turns reversed around the bier they wheeled 
And at its foot in solid phalanx kneeled. 
With ever restful faith they turn away 
From Clio's maze to hear Euterpe's lay. 

" There is a world within my breast 

Whose seas of passion never rest. 

No plummet sounds their wondrous deep 

No sail encompasses their sweep. 

Rare jewels lie in golden sands 

Celestial breezes fan their strands. 

And voices sound from shore to shore 

That angels wistfully adore. 

When I their charming tales relate 

I feel that other hearts dilate 

And pleasures roll from soul to soul 

In flowing waves without control. 

Earth's beauty takes a fresher hue 

As if the spirit's bliss it knew. 

And brutes are glad to sympathize 

With joy that beams from human eyes. 

The stars seem nearer to the earth 

And kindling souls receive new birth. 
O, when the poet tunes his lyre 
To sing my inmost heart's desire 

His holy numbers bid me rise 

Upon their ardor to the skies." 

Apollo now the tender chorus swayed 
To strains that doubtfully their thought conveyed, 
With echoes like the twinkling of a star 
That faints when forced to send its light too far. 
From Helicon and all tlie mountains round 
Those echoes trembled heavenward from the yround 



THK OHSKQUIES OF ORPHFAIS. I3 

To fall as gently as the vesper dew 

Or sighs of love-sick Merope that drew 

Reluctant leave from sister Pleiades 

To wed a mortal from the Hellenese 

And with an art endow him that could wring 

From Moros all the wormwood of his sting. 

With mincing gait and smirking clownish face 
Thalia strutted to the singer's place. 

" I would not wound the humblest soul 
That labors after virtue's goal, 
Nor choose to make the vicious fool 
The target of my ridicule. 
But when the priests have lost their jjower ' 
And at the shrine of Mammon cower, 
And law is but a cheating game 
To mock a stable social frame, 
And none appear who dare defend 
The truths that selfishness offend 
'Tis then the Gods ordain to purge 
The social fabric with my scourge. 

Clear as the sun the poet stays 

The gracious beacon of his days, 
To vice a foe, to virtue true 
Though shame and poverty ensue. 

The wise shall write his epitaph 

He ruled the foolish with a laugh." 

Sly Momus asked for Psyche leave to try 
If with such heavenly measures she could vie. 
In robes of motley sheen, as proud as vain 
To be admitted to that noble train. 
She first her posture fixed, and then her dress, 
Then cleared her voice, and smiled her happiness. 
And hemmed again, and heaved her snowy breast. 
And with conceited effort sang her best. 



14 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

There was amid the rites a ghastly pause 
While she was waiting for divine applause 
To hear from Hippocrene's fount the neigh 
Of Pegasus who did his best to bray. 
Poor Psyche swooned upon the tender breast 
Of Niobe by Zeus and all caressed. 
So near was this to comic tragedy 
That Hermes ushered next Melpomene. 

" Horror, horror, everywhere, 
Sorrow, death and dire despair 
Hurtling through the earth and air, 
Ruin stalking from her lair, 

Man with power to choose the light 

Dwelling in the^dismal night, 

Souls designed to love the right 

Holding error with delight. 
Hearts beneath the evil smother. 
Children wailing for their mother, 
God descends to help another, 
Cain for gold destroys his brother. 

Poet of humanity 

Sing the power of Charity, 

Tell the tearful tragedy 

All its blessed remedy." 

The charms of Aphrodite waned before 
The graceful attitude Pandora bore, 
Endowed with all the gifts the Gods could give, 
When she discharged her grave prerogative. 
Her crown, such work Hephaestus only weaves. 
Was golden filigree of apple leaves. 
And o'er her heart a beaming cross more rare 
Than any other soul in heaven could wear. 
She stood a moment like a glowing star 
Then opened wide her alabaster jar 
And let a cloud of incense spread on high 
With blue and purple folds to drape the sky. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 15 

Portrayed upon this screen was Caucasus 
A lofty peak most bleakly mountainous. 
And on its side Prometheus chained in agony 
Submitted to an eagle's gluttony 
That tore his bleeding flesh while still it grew 
To tortures his invention never knew. 

She closed the jar and all the air was clear 
Then opened it again with trembling fear. 
Such dark and lurid banks of cloud arose 
As open gates of Tartarus disclose. 
Upon their front in traceries of light 
A dim and startling picture met the sight. 
A cross that bore a form of godlike mien 
.\mid a crowd of hooting men was seen 
And through the dark a flame came streaming down 
To sit in glory on its thorny crown. 

Amazed to understand this mystic show 
They asked to hear the song of Erato. 

' ' The love' that binds the human race 
To keep the social frame in place 
Is but a worthless sentiment 
If it is not to justice bent. 
The qualities of mercy fail 
Where justice is of no avail. 
The want of all veracity 
Is Pluto's wished calamity. 
True rectitude must ever be 
The poet's love Eurydice. 
Ixion's wheel revolves no more, 
The wounds of Tityus heal o'er, 
And Tantalus forgets to drink 
To see him walking on their brink 
In search of her whom demons stole 
And bore away to that dark hole. 
Forsaking all except his lyre 
He boldly fronts those demons sire. 



l6 I'HE OBSEC^UIES OK ORPHEUS. 

O, Earth, resound thy jubilee 

He gains his love Eurydice. 

Alas ! the faith of mortal men 

He backward looks, she sinks again." 

Then Sysiphus in misery was shown 
With patience heaving his retreating stone 
While charming music in suggestive measures 
In dying roused the hope of sweeter pleasures. 

They cheered the dauntless hero's bravery 
When called to hear the gay Terpsichore. 

" There 's not a thing however lone 

But has dear kindred of its own 
And man must ever realize 

His highest joy in social ties. 
The pious bigot loves himself, 

The sordid miser hugs his pelf, 
While christian men enjoy good cheer 

And hold each other ever dear. 
Then let the merry feet go round 

To music's most inviting sound 
And hearts leap up in glad surprise 

To meet the love from flashing eyes. 
Let feasting happy hours prolong 

Until they swell with jolly song 
And when the dawn appears in sight 

Let farewell kisses bury spite. 
O, happy he whose heart contains 

The glowing fire to weld the chains 
To fetter each enamored soul 

And bind it in the social whole." 

Two companies they formed and joined the dance 
To measured music's tripping resonance 
And to the tune a gleeful carol sung 
That with their movements rhythmically swung. 



THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 1 7 

In rolling waves with surging ebb and flow, 
And pirouetting singly to and fro, 
With agile limbs and lissome form they caught 
The poetry of motion in their thought. 
Or gliding softly as a summer breeze 
Through modest gestures with voluptuous ease 
They led their ardent spirits to aspire 
To reach the summit of their pure desire. 
With hand in hand through many an airy round 
They chased the charming music's floating sound 
And trod their measures like a flooding river 
Until they felt, beneath, Olympus quiver. 

To such diversion Hermes gave the choice 
To be the prelude to Polymnia's voice. 

" Thy praise O God is waiting thee 

Wherever work of thine may be 
However vast this solar frame 

Its smallest part extols thy name. 
Through all the years of time there swells 

The anthem that thy glory tells, 
Sweet sound to sweeter sound replies 

Its growing measures fill the skies. 
Beyond the realms that men explore 

It vies with all that thee adore 
And throngs of matchless angels sing 

Resounding praises to the King. 
O, could my heart this hymn indite 

And all its glowing rhythm recite 
No seraph's voice would higher raise 

The pean of thy holy praise." 

Apollo caught the wheel upon his lyre, 
The flushing ardor of the choir took fire 
And such a choral hallelujah gave 
As shook the highest heaven's architrave. 



l8 THE OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 

Enraptured to the topmost of their bent 
They crowded round the bier with thoughts intent 
Upon the mystery of things supreme 
That lurked beneath Urania's lofty theme. 

" Hail ! Death thou phantom of a dream, 
Thou art not what thy features seem, 
I scorn thy horror crested pride, 
The Grave, thy sorrow reeking bride. 
My soul is free, I will not hear 
The stupid mumble of a fear. 
The slave to sin and woe no more 
I will this universe explore. 

In humble tones beneath my feet 
And from the farthest world's retreat 
Its countless voices join to say 
The life of man has no decay. 
And when to reason I appeal 
To know what it may well reveal 
The formal courses of the mind 
With ease the same conclusion find. 
But my dear heart more certain still 
Because it touches heaven's will 
Can never doubt its quality 
But feels its immortality. 
Then how sublime the confirmation 
That God bestows by revelation, 
His voice has crowned the certainty, 
I know my immortality. 

The poet stands on ocean's shore 

To listen to its mystic lore. 

The sands beneath his feet are white. 

Unending dawn contents his sight.'" 

Almighty Zeus then laid his sceptre by 
And threw the lyre of Orpheus to the sky. 
Its constellation roves the stellar way 
And willing minds adore its quickening sway. 



■J'HK OBSEQUIES OF ORPHEUS. 19 

Before its light could cross the ether's space 
The Olympian court became an empty place. 

The tomb made holy by such rites as these 
Was soon dishonored by the Hellenese 
And Zeus to mark the stress of his disdain 
Made Ossa and Olympus burst in twain 
To let the Vale of Tempe lie between 
The loveliest spot of earth that eye has seen 
Where nature all her beauty still unveils 
To greet these warbles of the nightingales : 

" Brave, guileless souls, rejected by their own 
To rise through mystic sorrow to their throne. 
Who drink the gall, yet sweetly furnish bread 
To feed the hungry long, when they are dead. 
Who faithful sow the truth in fallow fields 
And wait in peace the harvest that it yields. 
Mysterious beings, coming unawares 
To every age its rightful honored heirs. 
Unselfish as the self-consuming sun 
That spreads new life where'er its courses run 
The Spirits that inspire their quickening lays 
Will cull their fruit with joy through endless days." 




m 



n 



LIBRARY OF CONGRfeSS 




016 117 797 I 



